Age

Tingle (チンクル,Chinkuru?, ) is a recurring character in the Legend of Zelda series. He is a thirty-five year old man who is obsessed with "forestfairies". Above all, Tingle's dream is to become a forest fairy himself, and dresses up in green costumes resembling the Hero's Clothes worn by Link, as he believes that these green clothes are the same as those worn by the "forest fairies" he seeks to emulate.

Tingle has often appeared in some installments in the series, mostly as an ally to Link and once as a friendly antagonist. Tingle specializes in maps and is a skilled cartographer, a skill which proves helpful to Link during his adventures. The backpack he wears contains a special balloon that allows him to float through the air. In addition to his main series appearances, Tingle also appears in several spin-off titles several where he himself is the protagonist, as well appearances in other non-canon titles such as Super Smash Bros. and the Hyrule Warriors spin-off series.

Although Tingle's personality sometimes differs in the series, he is often shown as a kind, childish, playful, somewhat confused, peculiar, slightly greedy and strange (if not flamboyant) person. He is also generally nice towards Link, showing that he is capable of associating with others.

Interesting to note is that some items are based off of him, to the point of having a statue in his appearance.

Interestingly, Tingle bears a mild resemblance to Nintendo composer Kōji Kondō, who contributes to most of the music in the Legend of Zelda series.

Contents

Appearances

Tingle sells self-made maps to Link, whom he befriends, to help him navigate Termina. The locations where Tingle may be found are North Clock Town, Milk Road, Southern Swamp, Goron Village, Great Bay Coast, and Ikana Canyon. The maps available for purchase are for the region wherein Link encounters Tingle, as well as for the next region Link is to travel to in order to continue his quest (for example, in North Clock Town, Tingle offers the maps of Clock Town and Woodfall). Maps come at a much cheaper cost if purchased in the locations they depict.

After Link receives the ability to use Bubble Blast, Tingle begins deploying the balloon stowed away in his backpack to suspend himself in mid-air, presumably to get a better view of his surroundings for the purposes of cartography. In order to catch his attention, Link must burst his balloon with the aforementioned bubbles, or projectile weapons such as the Hero's Bow or Hookshot.

Tingle can be found floating above a stump in a hard-to-reach area southeast of Lynna City. Link manages to access the area with the help of Ricky; here, Tingle gives Link a chart that helps him navigate the Crescent Strait. Using his magic words, Tingle also expands Link's Seed Satchel if he returns later in the game.

Tingle is first encountered imprisoned in the Town Jail on Windfall Island. After he is freed, Tingle befriends Link and gives him the Tingle Tuner, a special item that can be used in certain situations to call upon the aid of Tingle, by connecting a Game Boy Advance to the Nintendo GameCube via a special link cable. This allows a second player to control Tingle to help the first. Tingle also gives Link a poorly drawn map to Tingle Island before he leaves the jail. After Tingle leaves, Link can then enter Tingle's cell and proceed through a small maze where at the end lies the Picto Box.

Later in the game, Tingle plays a vital role in the storyline: At some point, Tingle sends Link the IN-credible Chart, a special Sea Chart, in the mail. This chart reveals the locations of eight Triforce Charts, charts that reveal the location of the eight shards of the Triforce of Courage. The Triforce Charts will say they need to be deciphered. Once Link arrives on Tingle Island with a Triforce Chart, Tingle will decipher them for the price of 398 Rupees per chart, using his special "magic words": "Tingle, Tingle, Kooloo-Limpah! Become... READABLE!" After a chart has been deciphered, Link can retrieve one of the eight shards from the ocean floor and reassemble the Triforce of Courage.

Also appearing together with Tingle are three characters that resemble him, only distinguishable by the different color of their clothing. The one dressed in pink is Tingle's younger brother Ankle. The one garbed in white is an "ordinary" human, David Jr., whom Tingle rescued from a shipwreck and made work in the Tingle Tower. Ankle also has a twin brother named Knuckle dressed in blue, who can be located on Tingle Island after completing a Tingle Tuner side-quest on Outset Island.

Tingle often displays selfish and negative sides of himself in this game. David Jr. tries to explain to Tingle that he isn't a fairy, but he tends to ignore David Jr. Tingle also shows signs of selfish slothfulness — he forces Ankle and David Jr. to continually make Tingle Tower spin while he does nothing else but lie down. On top of everything else, Tingle is revealed to be an incredibly abusive force in the lives of Ankle and David Jr.; Ankle begs Link to visit as often as possible, as Tingle routinely mistreats them above and beyond forcing them to turn his tower, but on days when Link visits, his mood, and subsequently his treatment of his cronies, improves drastically. The prices of Tingle's services often requires Link to obtain one of the Wallet upgrades beforehand, charging Link 201 rupees to have the IN-credible Chart, which requires that Link upgrades his wallet just to purchase the chart that costs 1 rupee more than he could carry. Each of the Triforce Chart deciphering jobs costs 398 Rupees, totaling 3,184 Rupees.

Tingle takes on the role of a friendly antagonist. If Link leaves too many Force Gems lying around for too long without taking them, Tingle will eventually appear on his balloon and try to steal them. Link must try to grab them before he does. When playing Hyrulean Adventure, this function can be disabled. His balloon can be popped through the use of projectile weapons or thrown rocks. Tingle also runs the Tingle's Tower, a multiplayer minigame gallery that can be accessed by progressing through the Hyrulean Adventure mode.

A newsletter made by Tingle called the Tingle Times can be found on Signs throughout Hyrule. These newsletters are slightly helpful throughout the adventure.

Tingle and his brothers, Ankle, Knuckle and David Jr. will fuse Kinstones with Link. When all four have fused Kinstones with Link once, a passage opens at the north end of Hyrule Field, which leads to a Treasure Chest containing the Magical Boomerang. Tingle and his brothers also tell Link how many Kinstone fusions remain. Once Link has fused every Kinstone with another character, Tingle gives him the Tingle Trophy as a reward.

Tingle also makes appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Tingle (with his Majora's Mask design) makes a cameo appearance in the Termina: Great Bay stage. His balloon acts as a temporary platform to players, but when a player strikes his balloon or stands on it for too long, it will pop and Tingle falls down and the platform is temporarily inaccessible. However, Tingle is so small and elevated that his balloon is not much of a factor.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tingle appears as an Assist Trophy (with his design from The Wind Waker). He uses his usual magic words, causing random effects. His effects are summoning balloons to fly away with (which has no effect on players), summoning flowers (which zooms the screen in on the one who summoned him), producing many hammers, both regular and golden, as well as summoning banana peels, which temporarily causes the ground to become extremely slippery. Additionally, one of the names suggested by the computer on the name input screen is "TINGL". Tingle also appears on two stickers. One of these depicts his artwork from Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rose-Colored Rupeeland. It provides a +12 bonus to arm attacks and can be applied to any character. The other depicts his artwork from The Wind Waker. This one provides a +24 bonus to flame resistance and can only be applied to Link, Toon Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf.

A mysterious character known as Uncle Rupee promises Tingle a life in Rupeeland, a utopian paradise, if he collects enough Rupees. Tingle accepts the offer and Uncle Rupee morphs Tingle from an ordinary 35-year-old man into the fairy-loving character he is known as today. With his new persona, Tingle sets off on his quest to collect enough Rupees to reach Rupeeland. Along the way, he makes many allies including Barkle and Pinkle. Once Tingle reaches the Fairy Garden, however, he also meets the Grand Fairy who informs the protagonist that Uncle Rupee is manipulating and using him. Uncle Rupee truly wishes to further his own personal being, and has created many Tingle-like characters in the past to increase his wealth. Realizing he must destroy Uncle Rupee, Tingle sets off to defeat his former mentor. After freeing Pinkle from her prison in Auros Ruins and collecting enough Rupees to climb the Tower, Tingle finally meets with Uncle Rupee face to face. In the climax of the adventure, Tingle defeats Uncle Rupee, thus saving the world from ultimate destruction.

Color Changing Tingle's Love Balloon Trip features Tingle and women. A direct sequel to Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, it is based on L. Frank Baum's classic story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the game, Tingle meets three companions, Kakashi, Buriki and Lion, who accompany him on his quest to find the right woman.

"Who is this man? Is it really a man? He says that he's actually a fairy, but he doesn't necessarily look much like a fairy... Are there 35-year-old fairies? Is Tingle one of them? Despite Tingle's... unorthodox fashion choices, he has a pure and innocent heart. He genuinely seeks to help his father by selling maps he made while floating around Termina by balloon. With his balloon and endless supplies of tricks, Tingle is a surprisingly competent addition to any group of warriors. If you're lucky, you may even hear a "Kooloo-Limpah" in battle!"

— Tingle, the Reincarnated Fairy? Historical Entry Tutorial Bio

Tingle appears as a playable character via the Majora's Mask DLC pack. His main weapon is his Balloon (which serves as his weapon moveset), though he also uses Tingle Bombs, his Wallet, a map roller, and even a Tingle Statue as part of his moveset. Due to his personality and moveset, Tingle is somewhat of a joke character, though is still a decent fighter in his own right. However, much like all DLC characters (excluding Cia, Wizzro, and Volga), he bears no impact on the plot, and thus cannot be played in Legend Mode.

Like other Hyrule Warriors DLC characters, Tingle returns as an unlockable character in game's Adventure Mode. During the development of Hyrule Warriors Legends, Tingle was going to appear in the Linkle's Tale side story, however the concept was scrapped during development and as a result, Tingle once again plays no role in either the main story or Linkle's Tale.

In addition to his Standard Outfit, Tingle also has a Knuckle Recolor of his Standard Outfit, as his alternate costume. He also has Recolors of his Standard Outfit based on Ankle, David Jr., and Pinkle as unlockable DLC.

Material Drops

Theory

Theory warning: This section contains theoretical information based on the research of one or several other users. It has not been officially verified by Nintendo and its factual accuracy is disputed.

A character named Purlo appears in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Purlo is possibly a reference to what Tingle would look like if he was a more realistic character. Purlo is the manager of the STAR Game in Hyrule Castle Town, and he wears a similar costume to Tingle. He is also obsessed with Rupees, much like Tingle. Unlike Tingle though, Purlo has an unfriendly attitude towards others.

Concept and Creation

"So, we thought, what if you had to buy maps? Then suddenly we needed a character that you would be buying maps from. We ultimately ended up with a character here that had a little bit of humor to him that [came from] thinking of...'What sort of person would sell a map?' And, well, we decided it would be the kind of person who makes a map. And the way that he makes a map is by floating through the air so that he can see the contours of the land and draw them. But as soon as we got that far in the process, we realized anybody that would fly through the air making a map has got to be a really weird person. So at that point we decided, okay, we'll go with this and make him a really weird guy."

Aonuma also said the concept for Tingle's character was the inspiration for his visual design, rather than the other way around:

"So when we made the character, we had this notion that one of the ways he might be a little bit weird is that he had this notion that he never wanted to grow up. And so I think, to that extent the clothes do fit this image of him. And the whole thing comes together as a very Peter Pan kind of visual. You know, if you think about it, it's this guy in his 30s in a green suit and is flying and never wants to grow up, it all sort of comes together around that."

Reception

Tingle is easily one of the most recognizable characters in the Zelda series, but he is also considered one of the strangest. His dress, strange habits, and flamboyant personality are often perceived as annoying traits by gamers, and the character has been highly criticized in the West by critics, mostly by the gaming websites ScrewAttack, IGN and GameTrailers. In stark contrast, Tingle is one of the most popular Zelda characters in Japan, which is presumably what led to his many appearances in the series, as well as the spin-off titles in which he has the starring role. Tingle is the only character other than Link to have received this honor for this Nintendo franchise.